Molech

[samwise gamgee]

The Israelites were often tempted to worship the gods of the Canaanites and the surrounding nations. One of those gods was called Molech or Moloch. He required that his worshipers sacrifice their children to him. Here is what Wikipedia says about him.

Rabbinical tradition depicted Moloch as a bronze statue heated with fire into which the victims were thrown. This has been associated with reports by Greco-Roman authors on the child sacrifices in Carthage to Baal Hammon, especially since archaeological excavations since the 1920s have produced evidence for child sacrifice in Carthage as well as inscriptions including the term MLK, either a theonym or a technical term associated with sacrifice. In interpretatio graeca, the Phoenician god was identified with Cronus, due to the parallel mytheme of Cronus devouring his children.
Moloch - Wikipedia
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It seems inconceivable that anyone would be willing to kill their own children. Perhaps it makes more sense when we understand the power behind idolatry.

What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.
1 Corinthians 10:19-20 ESV
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The idols that people once worshiped were not simply statues. They were empowered by demons and those who worshiped them placed themselves under the power of those demons. The power of Molech overrode the natural instincts of parents to care for their children and led them to sacrifice them to their god.

Today no one sacrifices his children to a statue of Molech but the spirit of Molech is very active in the world. Many people consider it acceptable to sacrifice their children as long as they do so while the child is still in its mother’s womb. Proponents of abortion defend the practice with a zeal that seems almost religious. Most Christians know that those who have abortions are violating the sixth commandment, “You shall not murder,” but how many of them realize that they are also violating the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me”?

Of course abortionists don’t call abortion a sacrifice. Instead, they say it is a mother exercising her right to control her own body. There are two things wrong with this belief. They are actually destroying a child whom they have a God given responsibility to protect, train, and nurture. And their bodies do not belong to them but to the God who created them.

Here is God’s command regarding those who sacrifice their children to Molech.

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name.”
Leviticus 20:1-3 ESV
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Surely he feels the same way about today’s worshipers of Molech. Of course the church is not a nation, as Israel was, so we have no authority to use force to end abortions, but we should do what we can to get our nations to outlaw abortion, and we should do all was can to show others how evil it is.

Have you ever heard anyone say something like this, “I am personally opposed to abortion but I don’t feel that I have any right to impose my beliefs on others”? God has something to say to these people.

And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.
Leviticus 20:4-5 ESV
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There can be no neutrality on the issue of abortion. Either you are opposing it or you are supporting it, either actively or passively. If you don’t know what kind of action you can take to stop abortion, you might find help on one of these sites:

National Right to Life | The nation's oldest & largest pro-life organization

https://prolifeaction.org/

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[RaymondG]

There can be no neutrality on the issue of abortion. Either you are opposing it or you are supporting it, either actively or passively.

There is a position of neutrality. The serpent stated that it would be wise and good to partake of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil...... even though God told us to stay away from it.

And like you have pointed out.....the same things that were encouraged at the beginning is being encouraged today. You say,to be on the good side, I have to look at the actions of others and judge whether they are good or bad.

I say, to stay away from that fruit.......it didnt help in the beginning, and it wont help now.

If everyone began to make sure that themselves and their own houses served the Lord.....the world would gradually become a place where everyone Serves Him.... But instead we want to look across at our neighbors and judge them instead.

When you make a line, step across it and then thrown stones at the other side.....you are not being part of a solution.

Positive change can be made only by those who take no sides.

 

[FireDragon76]

Phoenicians often sacrificed their children during times of famine. So the Bible is really only giving us one side of this story, sort of like political propaganda.

In addition, I was reading a Reformed Jewish scholar of the Torah who said there is a midrashic tradition that probably preserves the original account of Abraham, when he actually sacrifices his son Isaac. So it's likely that human sacrifice wasn't so foreign at one time to the region, it is only later during the Babylonian Exile that rabbis started thinking critically about human sacrifice.

 

[samwise gamgee]

There is a position of neutrality.

Not when it comes to serving God. Jesus said, " Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

 

[samwise gamgee]

I was reading a Reformed Jewish scholar of the Torah who said there is a midrashic tradition that probably preserves the original account of Abraham, when he actually sacrifices his son Isaac.

Any tradition which contradicts the Bible is false.

 

[FireDragon76]

Any tradition which contradicts the Bible is false.

No matter how much it is supported by actual scholarship? Perhaps your whole approach to the Bible is wrong, have you stopped to consider that?

 

[RaymondG]

Not when it comes to serving God. Jesus said, " Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

Would you say you are gathering or scattering? are you fostering peace and forgiveness, or separation and condemnation? The Lord our God in One Lord.......And besides Him there is no other. Any thought that there are Two, only comes from the mind.

 

[samwise gamgee]

Would you say you are gathering or scattering? are you fostering peace and forgiveness, or separation and condemnation? The Lord our God in One Lord.......And besides Him there is no other. Any thought that there are Two, only comes from the mind.

I am trying to warn those who support abortion that what they believe is wrong. That is the first step in being gathered to Christ, recognizing that you need him.

 

[FireDragon76]

I am trying to warn those who support abortion that what they believe is wrong. That is the first step in being gathered to Christ, recognizing that you need him.

That's funny, I don't recall Jesus saying anything about abortion. Perhaps you should give more respect to people exercising their own moral agency in judging how we should vote and what sorts of public policies we support? Who died and made you Pope, exactly?

 

[samwise gamgee]

That's funny, I don't recall Jesus saying anything about abortion.

He didn't need to. He lived among people who knew God's law and regarded children as a blessing and not a curse or something that could be disposed of if they were inconvinient.

 

[FireDragon76]

He didn't need to. He lived among people who knew God's law and regarded children as a blessing and not a curse or something that could be disposed of if they were inconvinient.

So we are all supposed to live the same as iron age Jews, regardless of how different the world is now days?

 

[samwise gamgee]

So we are all supposed to live the same as iron age Jews, regardless of how different the world is now days?

Our present age is very different in its technology but there is no difference in right and wrong. Humans change but God does not.

 

[RaymondG]

I am trying to warn those who support abortion that what they believe is wrong. That is the first step in being gathered to Christ, recognizing that you need him.

Those who are against abortion (which is probably everyone) need God just as much as those who believe in allowing others to choose for themselves. It is dangerous to link salvation to political choices.

And know that there is no one for abortion.......the only sides are those against Choice and those For Choice/free will. You will not find one person who would say that they believe it is ok for one to plan to get pregnant with the intention of ending the pregnancy......This is just an illusion to make the one for choice seem bad...

 

[Desk trauma]

I suppose trying to class abortion as child sacrifice is the new standard talking point.

 

[Tanj]

I am trying to warn those who support abortion that what they believe is wrong. That is the first step in being gathered to Christ, recognizing that you need him.

You are having the opposite effect, and are in fact driving people away from Christ.

As an atheist, Id like to offer my thanks for that.